


Well, Hello to You Too

by LizzyDizzyYo



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Angst, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 05:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10690266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizzyDizzyYo/pseuds/LizzyDizzyYo
Summary: Dan doesn’t know why he keeps insisting on leaving cute, hilarious, and sometimes outrageously embarrassing little notes on that stranger’s bench. It’s not like he’s getting anything out of it or it’s going anywhere (even though it’s completely his own fault for not having the balls to just go up to the stranger and say hi, but that’s beside the point). Or maybe he never really wants anything out of it. Maybe it’s more than enough already to see the cute stranger’s little laughs or horrified but amused smiles when the notes he left on the bench are finally read. He just… adores that stranger.did u know that blue whales dont have teeth but filter mouth instead,he wrote once. When he saw the stranger (from a different tree than the beginning because the grass was starting to get uncomfortable to sit on and also because he didn’t want to get caught), the stranger giggled and he swore that that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.(a.k.a the secret admirer’s notes au that I prompted onphanfic.)





	Well, Hello to You Too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just fyi, this is actually an old phanfic that I started two years ago, and I didn’t exactly proofread this that much, so if you noticed terrible writing, there’s that. I don’t know when the second part would be out because I’d like to focus on my original work since that’s the reason I got my AO3 account in the first place, but I will finish it. Just be patient, okay? Also, I would probably revamp it later after the second part is up because unedited work is ugh
> 
> Lemme know what you think and enjoy!
> 
> (Also here's the [ tumblr link](http://lizzydizzyyo.tumblr.com/post/159828262612/well-hello-to-you-too))

The first time Dan noticed him was when he was running down the hallway to get to his first ever class in uni. Naturally, he would be late. It is sad but it is just how the universe works; either he would be too lazy to get his arse moving when he needs to or the nature, the sky, and everything else would conspire against him to completely ruin his plan when he is feeling rather ecstatic about going with his day. The result? Of course, he would be late.

But he was a new student that day, a duckling who didn’t know his way around the massive University of Manchaster like the other freshmen around him, so that excuse could work in his favor.

He ran and ran from his dorm to his class building, faster than he thought possible with his completely unfit body. He didn’t care for what was flying past on his vision. He only cared about going to his class because as freshman as he was, 30 minutes late would still be pushing it. He vaguely remembered that there was an open greenery space between the buildings which the students used to just chill and study (and which the PR division of the uni frequently used to take those stockphoto-like promotional pictures). He could run on that space to cut his journey much shorter than if he trailed through the building paths, so he took that road.

That was when he coincidentally turned his head a little to look at the bench by at least 10 meters on his left.

It was just a nano second, but that was a sight he didn’t know he would never forget.

There was an angel with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes behind the glasses sitting on that bench. He was a very, very beautiful angel indeed.

* * *

The second time he noticed the same stranger was when he was less likely to die because of sheer exhaustion coupled with burning lungs and more relaxed after feeling like he had somewhat settled on the life of being a uni student.

He was walking with his thick law textbook to a tree in the same greenery space he just cut through a month ago. He then laid down under it and leaned back against the trunk, praying that he could actually be bothered to read and study the book long enough to retain some knowledge.

Five minutes after sitting down, however, he noticed some voices that gradually became louder (or he was just gradually pulled out of his overly-focused attention to his book), and he had no choice but to huff and turned his head to the source. On his right, around 15 meters from where he was sitting, he saw several other students talking and joking around jovially and loudly. He rolled his eyes and went back to his book.

He had to admit, though, that the voice was way too difficult to ignore. He was about to walk up there and told them to shut it.

But he was a British. British people don’t confront. British people just grumble annoyingly like the wuss they are and move on.

He finally decided to look at the group of seemingly older students and give them an irritated look, hoping that they could feel his heated stare burning through the back of their heads somehow. No such thing happened.

But what did happen was his narrowed eyes slowly widening as he took in the sight of a familiar stranger in the middle of the bench. He was as beautiful as the first time he accidentally took the sight in, if not more, because now he wasn’t rushed and he could drink in the sight more carefully.

Well, he guessed he could let his annoyance slide for that pretty face.

* * *

The third time Dan noticed him again was when he was walking back to his dorm after a particularly tiring class and a day that completely drained his mental and physical energy. He was exhausted, pissed, and ready to just flop right then and there in the middle of the grass land. He didn’t, of course, because the evil, daunting, dark grey sky promised a particularly nasty rain, so he kept walking.

As he was about to pass by the space between the tree and the bench that he’d been walking on for the last few weeks, he noticed a man getting up from the bench while gathering up his things. Just as he was probably only ten meters away from the said bench, the man had stood up with his back to Dan.

He didn’t particularly register who the man was, but as he vacantly stared at the back, he noticed the familiar jet black hair and body posture that somehow was already etched into his mind. Now that he was only few meters away from the stranger, he noticed just how broad and shapely the back was.

Goddamn, how he wished he could just run his hand on the surface.

He didn’t want to appear like a creeper just in case the man turned around and saw him drooling at the sight of his body, so he hung his head and just walked on.

He suddenly had a thought that maybe, just maybe, he could do something about the fact that he kept running into the man a lot this lately.

* * *

The next subsequent times he saw the man were no longer accidental as he noticed that the man had a habit of being on that bench while Dan himself liked to be under the tree near it. He didn’t particularly plan when he saw the stranger, but as he sat under the tree, stressed by the weight of the course he realized he didn’t exactly want to study, he always had a glimmer of hope that he would see him as he looked at his right.

It didn’t always happen.

Sometimes, when he sat under the tree, the bench was still (or already?) empty. Sometimes, as he walked to the tree, he saw the man getting up from the bench. Sometimes when _he_ was about to get up from the spot under the tree, the man just walked into the grassy space. Sometimes when he needed to go to his class and did not have time to just sit and chill under his favorite tree, he saw the man already engrossed in his book or notes or a conversation with a friend.

As the time went on, though, he started to get a semblance of how their tree-bench sitting schedule could overlap each other. It started as a hit-and-miss, then he started to correctly predict whether the stranger was going to be there from 1 out of 5 times to 3 out 5 times.

Eventually, he ran just as fast as his first day of uni to the tree space when he noticed from his wristwatch (which he bought just for this very purpose) that he was nearing the time to see the stranger on the bench. He had never missed the opportunity to do so in the last few days. It was on the second month mark of his going to uni.

Still, all he did was just settle into this one-sided camaraderie of enjoying the cool and breezy space.

It was okay, though. He liked looking at the stranger and feeling like he had a comrade in struggling to study or do homework.

* * *

On the third month mark, he started to notice more than just the stranger’s attractiveness. He noticed a lot of things about what kind of person he was, who he was friends with, what kind of projects or events he was involved in, and what course he was taking (It was English Language and Linguistics, which sounded very cool).

He learned that the man’s name was Phillip (or was it Phil?) and he was a very humanitarian and active student. He was a senior, while Dan himself was still a first-year student (and likely wouldn’t be beyond). He was always involved in this and that project, going to this and that conference, being in this and that events, and so on. He also had a lot of friends, who were just as active and as ambitious as him, and they frequently hung out with Phil on the bench.

Their jokes were very smart and academic, as if they actually enjoyed their course so much that it was entertaining to them. Dan was jealous. He would throw up or punch the other person if they tried to have an inside law joke with him. Seriously.

One day, though, he noticed the stranger looking a bit solemn and quiet. Granted, in the three months that he knew (stalked) Phil, he saw the man being quiet and annoyed several times. Sometimes it was adorable, and sometimes it tugged at his heart to do something, but he never did.

Not at that one particular time, though.

He decided to close his book and observed the Phil-guy instead. Several moments later, he ran his hand through his hair in frustration, and Dan felt like walking up to him and consoling him. He didn’t of course, and instead opted to just look sad on behalf of the Phil-guy.

But that particular moment gave him an idea.

* * *

On the third month and 10th day mark of Dan being in uni, he finally went to the stranger’s bench (he knew his name, all right? But he was never introduced to the man, so he might as well be a stranger still) with a scrap of paper. Relying on his memory of when the stranger was going to be there, he went to the bench earlier, hands shaking and sweating with the paper balled inside his palm.

He looked to his right and his left before deciding that nobody was looking at him and it was safe to tidy up the paper and fold it properly. He then put the paper on the bench.

Anything else that would happen to the paper was up to Mother Nature to decide, but he sure hoped it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind and fall into a dirty puddle or something.

* * *

The next week, he noticed the stranger looking quite happier. He was reading a book (he always did, he was in English Language course for Christ’s sake). Dan was glad, although he wondered what became of his scrap of paper and what the stranger’s reaction was.

Looking at the stranger and sitting with him (in the loosest sense of word, of course) had become the only perk in his increasingly stressful and regretted uni life, so he was glad that the stranger was there to cheer him up just by existing.

He now had a hobby, trying to figure out what the Phil-stranger was reading or doing, or what he was planning. It took over more of his concentration and memory space than his own course lectures did. He didn’t care.

He suddenly had a desire to rip the edge of his notebook paper and write something, so he did.

 _Hey, you have nice taste in literature,_ he wrote, even though he only ever heard of one title from Khaled Hosseini (whose name he briefly read from the book the stranger was holding when he walked past him). He didn’t even know what the book was about. Maybe he should check that out.

Half an hour later, he walked to the bench just as the stranger was 100 meters away from it, and he put the scrap of paper on the bench before leaving.

* * *

Two weeks after that one particular paper-on-the-bench, he counted that he had already put around 5 scraps of paper with the most generic and sometimes downright cheesy messages like _‘smile :)’_. He didn’t know whether the stranger really read it, or he just thought it was a garbage paper (which he had to admit, they kind of were) so he just threw them away.

Sometimes he wondered if the stranger got the paper at all. One time he noticed a random girl sitting on the bench and looking at the scrap of paper. She took it and he had never felt so horrified in his entire life. He made sure he write _‘For Phil, the bench keeper’_ on the back of the paper to make sure it wasn’t read by the wrong person from then on. He didn’t care if it was cringy. At least it was cringy, but only to the intended person.

The stranger never seemed to have any different reaction or looked like was affected by the paper at all, though. He didn’t even look like he _took_ the paper at all, or was aware of its existence. Dan felt that maybe he should stop his weird, stalker-ish habit. It was taking over his life because it was not rare for him to find himself daydreaming in classes about how the stranger was going to react or about what he should write next.

But then one day, the stranger opened his notebook and a scrap of paper (which suspiciously looked like the one he put on the bench three days ago) fell on the ground.

The stranger immediately went ‘Oh!’ and quickly bent down to catch it before it even hit the slightly snowy grass. He looked to his left and right frantically before sighing in relief and sneaking the paper back into the middle of his textbook.

He swore he had never felt so elated in his life.

* * *

For the next few weeks, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that the secret note ritual that he had was the highlight of his days.

He now deliberately chose the time as close to as the time the stranger would be arriving at his bench to put the paper, which meant that before that, he already had to have had thought about what the paper was going to say. He decided to change his time from after the stranger had left to before the stranger was there so that he could see how the stranger react to his note, instead of risking the paper blown away, thrown away, taken by the wrong person, or actually taken by the intended person but he would miss the reaction.

Sometimes, though, his schedule didn’t allow it that in 2 out of 5 days that he had classes, he had to put the paper after the stranger had left because he couldn’t be there beforehand. It was okay. In the other three days, he could see the reaction.

At first, the stranger seemed unaffected and kind of ‘meh, I get another note’, but he gradually looked like he actually looked forward to Dan’s note.

It gave him hope and spirit that he had been lacking because of his study and finals preparation.

 _did u know that blue whales dont have teeth but filter mouth instead_ , he wrote once. When he saw the stranger (from a different tree than the beginning because the wet grass was starting to get uncomfortable to sit on and also because he didn’t want to get caught), the stranger giggled and he swore that that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

The notes he left gradually got less formal but longer, and sometimes they had the weirdest and most obscure messages ever. One time he wrote, _‘wat did the mermaid say to the lover? we mermaid for each other ;)*’_

The stranger groaned, but chuckled anyway.

Other time, he wrote _‘Muse is awesome pass it on’_ on the note, and he got an agreeing hum and a little proud nod.

When he wasn’t feeling the best, he mostly just said _‘I hope ur having a great day cos I sure am not :(‘_ or something along the line.

One day after he left such note, he walked to the bench with a new note, but he noticed a book there which he knew the guy was reading yesterday.

He narrowed his eyes.

Did he forget to bring it back with him? But that was strange. The Phil-stranger seemed to consider his books to be very dear, so there was no way he forgot it here. Besides, he knew that yesterday, he brought the book back with him. Dan saw it himself.

Dan eventually decided to put the new note (which by this point was no longer scrapped paper but actual decorative special paper instead) to the bench and took the book to look at it.

He looked around a bit before deciding to open the book. Just the front page, though, and he noticed an unfamiliar looking folded paper inside it. He was about to ignore it and put the book back down when he noticed the tiny cursive-like writing on the corner of the note, which was almost obscured by the binding of the book.

It said _‘to the hilarious person who keep leaving notes on the bench.’_

His heart jumped up to his throat, and he spent at least a minute just standing there with eyes as wide as saucers. He finally blinked his surprise away and carefully took the paper out of the book. He then walked away, fearing that the stranger was actually around and watching him somewhere. He wasn’t ready to come out from his hiding yet.

Later after talking to his mum and dad on the phone (and lying about how well he was doing at school), he stared at the paper.

He exhaled and snatched the paper before unfolding and reading it.

_Hey stranger, whoever you are (yes, that’s the right spelling so I implore you to write like that from now on), I hope that this note actually gets to you because I’ll be disappointed if you don’t since I’ve written a lot already (I know I will, I tend to ramble a lot hahaha). Anyway, I’m sad to hear you aren’t having a good day :( It makes me feel kind-of guilty somehow because you’ve always been cheering me up at least 5 days a week (although it was weird at first) with your notes in the last few weeks, but I can do nothing to return the favor now that you probably need it. So can we do this instead, with me giving a note to you back? Or can I know who you are so that we can talk beyond faceless paper?_

He sighed sadly, thinking that, _no, sorry stranger, I’m not ready yet to see you_. Perhaps another time, who knew.

But the back-and-forth note? He guessed he could do that.

 

_To be continued._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *from [ justbadpuns.tumblr.com](http://justbadpuns.com/post/155961084238/what-did-the-mermaid-say-to-their-lover-we)


End file.
